My eyes shot up to meet his. I was half-tempted to ignore his question out of a petty sense of righteousness. He’d been basically ignoring me for the past three days, after all, so it would be fair of me not to talk to him either.
But my lips still opened and formed words. “Photography. I was supposed to go before I got sick and I never got the chance to go after because… well.”
I gestured around to the room. There wasn’t much time for me to attend college when my father was looking for a husband—or husbands—for me. I didn’t need a college degree to be sold off.
When Edison had offered to get me whatever I wanted, I’d insisted on getting my camera back from my parent’s house. Oona had offered to order the same model completely new, but it felt wrong to abandon the camera that had been my prized possession since it had been given to me as an off-handed gift when I was eleven years old.
Both of the men at the table seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before Edison finally spoke again. “Then you’ll go to college.”
He said it so decisively that Rhodes’ head snapped around so he could look at the other alpha, his expression incredulous. “How is she supposed to go to college? The Italians are just waiting for the perfect moment to snatch her back up.”
I tried to stifle the sheer excitement I was feeling because of his words. I’d all but written off going to college at this point. I knew Rhodes was right, but even just the chance had me sitting straighter in my chair as I tried to search Edison’s expression for any hint that he was playing with me.
It had only been three days since they’d brought me to the Keane estate, but I’d settled in more easily than I ever thought possible—even if I still sort-of considered it the lesser of two evils. Better to be here with Edison who smelled of fresh vanilla than Elio and his pack whose scents made me want to hurl.
Also, the idea of going out into public and being kidnapped—or re-kidnapped I guess—made my stomach twist uncomfortably and I really would have rather avoided it, college or not.
“Then you’ll go with her, Rhodes,” Edison said as if that was the simplest solution, leaning back in his seat with a smug grin. The alpha was clearly pleased with himself as we both stared at him as if he’d grown a second head.
“What?” My voice, combined with Rhodes’, bounced off of the fancy wooden rafters of the dining room.
Edison wasn’t perturbed by our outburst. No, if anything, it seemed to please him even more to see us so shocked. “Who better to take care of my wife than my closest subordinate? I’d trust no one else, of course we’ll have to get married first before you can go to classes…”
“How am I supposed to watch her and you at the same time?” Rhodes cut in, his dark eyes wide with panic as he swung a look over at me, silently asking me to help him.
I should have let him fend for himself, but something about the outpour of emotions from the normally stoic alpha spurred me into action. “I’m sure you can, I don’t know, put one of your other guys on me while I go to class. It doesn’t have to be him.”
Go to class. The words sparkled on my tongue as excitement swelled low in my belly. Edison made it sound so easy, like it was a foregone conclusion that I would go to college if I wanted to. He didn’t understand that I’d fought with my parents for four years while I was in the hospital to let me go back to college once my leukemia was in remission and even then they’d still told me no.
Because once I was healthy again my value would return and by then I would be almost too old to sell off. They couldn’t wait for me to finish college before trying to get the most money they could out of potential suitors.
My lip curled up with scorn and it took me another beat of glaring at my food for me to realize that both of the men had fallen silent.
“Perrie?” Edison’s voice was full of concern and I jerked up to look at him.
Shaking off my sour thoughts, I offered him a weak smile. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I was just telling you that if you want to go to school, it’s best Rhodes go with you. I trust Rhodes to keep you safe—if we use any of our other security teams then it will be just that, a team. As someone who always travels with a large group of people, I have to tell you that it’s not ideal. You’ll stick out even more on campus than you already would as you are.”
Just the idea of being followed around by a ton of people on a college campus made me grimace with distaste.
Flicking my gaze over to Rhodes who seemed to finally have resigned himself to our mutual fate, I sighed. “Fine. He can come with me.”
“Thanks, princess, for letting me attend to you. Your servant feels so privileged,” Rhodes mumbled sarcastically before stabbing his chicken viciously with his fork.
Edison ignored the alpha’s grumbling and sat back so that one of the attending staff could take his empty plate from him. “Good, then we’ll get you enrolled for the fall semester in a few weeks. That should give us just enough time to throw together a wedding.”
“A wedding?” I asked, sounding a little dumb.
“Yes, just like I told you before, you need to wear my name in order to go out in public without me. It’ll shield you—and I’d like for it to be legal sooner rather than later in case Amante gets any ideas.”
I’d blown right past any mention of the wedding in my excitement about going to college and the reality of it settled in now as Edison watched my face, measuring my reaction with those gold eyes of his.
“Are you sure you don’t want to just go to the courthouse? Seeing as someone crashed my last wedding wouldn’t it be safer that way?” I pointed out dryly.
Edison’s huff of laughter made my insides twist and I shoved the sensation down. It had no business in this conversation and my inner omega who’d become increasingly vocal in my mind needed to settle down before I put the both of us in an icy shower after lunch. “It will just be for the branch families. I’m afraid if we were to elope they would spend the next twenty years complaining about it and I can assure you that you don’t want to hear that.”
“Can you even plan a wedding in three weeks?” I had no part in planning my last wedding to Pack Ricci, leaving my mother to do it all. I had no idea how long it took to plan a wedding and Miranda Chandler’s tastes had been garish and far too pink for my tastes.
Edison smirked. “Pet, I’ve had this wedding planned since I signed that contract with your father. We could do it tomorrow if you wanted. I think you’ll find I’m very proactive when it comes to something I want.”
His eyes shifted like molten gold, his words holding a double meaning that I didn’t want to touch with a ten foot pole.
“So when will it happen?” I asked, nibbling on my bottom lip. I’d agreed to marry him, and truthfully, he was the best choice out of the options I’d been given, but for some reason my brain still craved the starry-eyed romance that I read about in books.
He smells good at least, the little voice in my head whispered. So, so good.
I couldn’t even disagree with it because Edison’s vanilla scent made my mouth water just to even think about it.
My omega instincts wanted me to climb into his lap and press my nose into the column of his neck and take one long drag of his scent—but I wasn’t sure instincts were enough to go off of.
At the end of the day we were going to sign what was, effectively, a business arrangement. One that would last forever as I was pretty sure that Edison would never agree to a divorce.
“You just need to pick the colors and your dress, then I can set the date,” Edison said, oblivious to my increasingly panicked internal monologue.
I blinked, surprised at his words. “You’re letting me pick my own dress?”
“Why wouldn’t I let you? Unless you want to wear that frothy monstrosity from the other day, I’m sure Oona hasn’t put it into the incinerator yet—”
